This year for lent, I am giving up all animal based food. I stopped eating beef and pork three and a half years ago, but just couldn't give up all meat and dairy. This is my new challenge...

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Grocery shopping...nutritional yeast???

Hi everyone! Welcome to my first official post. This is my first blogging experience, so PLEASE bear with me!

So, yesterday I went on my first official vegan shopping trip to prepare for this week. Wednesday is the official start of 40 days of Lent, so I must be prepared. I've tried to go the "vegan" route before, and was less than successful. Looking back, I know exactly what went wrong. For starters, I tried to buy EVERYTHING at an expensive grocery store. I quickly realized I couldn't afford that for even myself, much less my family. Second, I bought weird things my family wouldn't eat. Instead of looking at what we already ate and modifying (a term commonly used by my fellow educators) I bought odd things they didn't want. This lead us to preparing different meals each night. The last reason totally did me in...I became pregnant with my third child. I don't eat much of anything during my first three or four months of pregnancy, and strange foods I wasn't used to were just not cutting it. It got to where I was eating all the WRONG things, so I quit. Even though I couldn't handle being a complete vegan I have never eaten beef or pork again, nor has my daughter.

Unlike last time, I'm hoping dinnertime will be for the WHOLE family to enjoy, not just myself. I have found 4 meals to start with....Lentil and Black Bean Chili, Okra Gumbo with Chickpeas and Kidney Beans, Sunflower Mac served with broccoli, and Tomato Chickpea Soup wit a Nutty Gremolata for my lunch. I'll let you know how each of them turn out later. I headed to my local Aldi to stock up on inexpensive produce and then headed for Tom Thumb for the rest. I honestly had never purchased "lentils" before, but concluded that they must be a bean because the recipe asked for them to be dry. The only two things I left without were saffron ($20 for a spice...really?) and nutritional yeast. I found nutritional yeast and will let you know all about another time...

For now...I'm off to have a happy Sunday afternoon grading papers and going on a date night with my husband. The countdown to my vegan days is on!!!